Lady Blues, Red Devils Tip 2015-16 Season at Midnight

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – In 12 hours the college basketball season will officially get underway as the Illinois College Lady Blues travel to face the Eureka Red Devils in the first regular season game of 2015-16 at any NCAA level. The two sides will tip-off at exactly 12 a.m. Central Standard Time from Eureka's Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena.

Midnight Madness has been a staple of the college basketball world for years and years, with campuses across the country marking the start of practice with an event at midnight. IC and Eureka are taking that idea to the next level with a regular season game that starts at midnight. The NCAA's first allowable regular season date of competition this season is Nov. 13 and the Lady Blues and Red Devils are taking full advantage of every minute allotted to them this year.

Beginning her third season in charge of the Lady Blues is Head Coach Lora Westling. Westling has gone 26-21 in her first two seasons, including a 1-1 mark in season openers. In 2014-15, Westling guided Illinois College to a berth in the Midwest Conference Tournament, ending a drought of three years. 

Illinois College will begin its season with a few question marks after losing four seniors from last year's team, most notably back-to-back Midwest Conference Player of the Year Hannah McGinnis. Six players return from the 2014-15 team, including forward Melissa Solorio. As a freshman a year ago, Solorio was the second-leading scorer (11.7 ppg) and third-leading rebounder (5.1 rpg) on the team. She – along with seniors Hanna Bergkoetter and Jill Friedrich, juniors Ashley Hoegger and Mickalah York, and sophomore Alyssa Garde – will be relied on to lend experience to a roster that has 11 new faces.

Eureka College returns three starters and seven letterwinners from a 14-13 team in 2014-15 that was under the watch of then-first year Head Coach Steve Thompson. Like Illinois College, the Red Devils lose a senior starter who averaged in a double-double for the season with the departure of Kelsey Shoemake. The forward averaged 18.0 points and 13.3 rebounds in her final season a year ago. Looking to replace some of her numbers is senior Emily Camden – a 15.8 points per game scorer in 2014-15. Michaela Balducci could also play an important role for Eureka in the contest. She was averaging 11.3 points and 6.3 boards last season until missing the final 21 games due to injury.

Follow along tonight with live video and live stats through EurekaRedDevils.com. Connect on Twitter and track the game as it happens with the hashtag #SeasonStartsHere.